News Picks : Tesla and Panasonic to build battery factory in US

New York Times: Tesla Motors and Panasonic are collaborating on a factory to be built in the US to produce lithium ion batteries for Tesla’s all-electric vehicles. The battery is what makes an all-electric vehicle so much more expensive than a gas-powered one, so the collaboration is designed to cut costs by streamlining the manufacturing process and through economies of scale. "Not only does the Gigafactory enable capacity needed for the Model 3 [car] but it sets the path for a dramatic reduction in the cost of energy storage across a broad range of applications,” said J. B. Straubel, Tesla’s chief technical officer, in a press release. The site of the Gigafactory has not yet been decided.